Blog Find: Playing with Fire and Water

Foodplayerlinda describes herself as "a freelance chef  in Connecticut." She has a beautiful and informative blog called Playing with Fire and Water. Her latest post is entitled Cultured Butter. The post is particularly informative including the science behind and instructions for making one's own butter. She also asks  good questions. It is a post worth reading and a blog worth following!

Why don't more restaurants make their own butter? Why aren't there more artisanal producers? Why don't I make it?  All one needs is a good source of heavy cream. Hmmm. Battenville Valley Creamery anyone?

Do you make your own butter? Ifso, please share your experience.

Comments

[AJ]

I've made butter before on a few occasions, mostly sweet, and on perhaps two, cultured. It's one of those things, like home-made mayo, which is far easier to do than most people think. As to why more people don't make their own butter, perhaps, like cheese making, to get a truly interesting product, it has to start off with a decent source of cream.

Here in San Francisco, we're supposed to be pretty fortunate as we've got Strauss and Clover Stornetta readily available, and Organic Pastures and Claravale for raw milk if you know where to look. Outside of that, and you're going to have to have a personal relationship with a dairy farmer and be willing to go into the "grey area" of food regulation. And I think that latter point, plus the availability of some pretty solid commercial butters keeps the "house-made" butter to more novelty than norm.

Pim over at Chez Pim does hand-made and rather extraordinary single-source butter, that is available for special occasions at a restaurant in the area, as well as in her baked goods.

What I've always wanted is more solid data on the aging process. I see that the blog you've linked makes use of buttermilk to ensure the right kind of cultures, and she suggests 12-24 out + 8-12 in the fridge. Personally, I've never made use of buttermilk, as my milk has always freely soured on its own. A friend of mine uses even longer room aging. And history tells me that cultured butter was borne out of a lack of refrigeration. So, perhaps it might just take more experimentation, but I'd love to know just how much time and temperature affect the end product.